The Macon County History Museum has extended its reopening date until March 21 in order to finish off renovations to the rest of the museum and get new carpeting installed. We apologize for this inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.

The Macon County History Museum will be closed until February 28. We will be working on doing further renovations to the lower museum, additional painting, new exhibits, as well as archival and collections work. Larger groups may be scheduled by appointment if the times work, but part of the museum may not be accessible depending on the time period.

Local blacksmith Steve Knowles will show adults and children alike how to do basic blacksmithing in the museum’s Prairie Village blacksmith shop. He will make items in the blacksmith shop forge and illuminate visitors on the skill of blacksmithing and its importance to our history. We restored the shop last fall and early this spring so it will be in use for the last time this year with various events to be scheduled next year.

Phrenology in the 19thCentury was the belief that a person’s abilities could be determined by the shape of one’s skull and the size of the “bumps” thereon. Thoroughly discounted by science today, phrenology was proscribed to be a true science by most intellectuals of the time. It is estimated that over 2,000“Practical Phrenologists” had set out across America to read the heads –“having their heads examined,” of a population eager to better themselves. Prof. Phineas Fairhead P.P. a.k.a. Lee Slider will provide an entertaining lecture on this little known aspect of 19thCentury popular culture.

MCHM

Here at the Macon County History Museum we believe that In order to know what the future holds, you must first understand the past. This website was build on that premise, to connect people with our facility so that we can continue to educate and enlighten future generations. We are proud to introduce the new MCHM!